An exercise in dispelling the myth that all in suburbia is banal and pointless only to find that, by and large, it actually is and that, more importantly, it is beautiful in its ordinariness.

Sunday, February 26, 2006

Napster, Laptops and the orgasm of Camden Market

Current music: Mozart Piano Concerto No. 5Current mood: mellow – it’s Sunday afternoonJust coming to the end of a crazyade bonkers month of unlimited downloading from Napster due to a free month courtesy of The Independent. Now I remember why we take the papers! I’m not sure if my ISP is best pleased about the goings on with the bandwidth but it’s all coming to a close now. I’ve been pretty disappointed with Napster it has to be said. They were pretty good for the bulk record collection that has largely eluded me although of course I cannot listen to it anywhere apart from this computer. But as I have come across new names either on last.fm or as entries on other people’s blogs the results from Napster have been scarce to the point of non-existence.Never mind. It’s better than nothing. And who knows, maybe one day the solution will be found to allow me to do more with what I found.Now I could do with some advice. Conversation turned today at our church lunch to the whole laptop versus desktop and apple versus windows debate. My friend pointed out that since he installed a wireless point in his house and sorted his kids out with laptops they are now to be found in the living room and taking a slightly more active role in their family life. I cannot deny that I spend much of life in front of this enormous desktop system and wonder if it’s really quite worth it. It needs a bit of an upgrade and I wonder if now is the time to flog it to my mum who has been on about getting a computer for yonks and using the money on a laptop. And if do, should I get a Mac or PC. Thinking to do. Advice required please.As for me and my household…Talking of Apple laptops, N is currently playing with his new Apple laptop. Work were chucking out a load of redundant hardware including a couple of Apple Emate 300 machines. Any geeks among the readership, apple geeks at that, may know that the Emate 300 was Apple’s first foray (in partnership with Newton) into the world of laptops. Anyway these machines are now consigned to the league of PDA and are only good for basic word processing and drawing plus a few other applications downloadable from geek websites but it is perfect for young N. It also includes a stylus for drawing on the screen so he can do little drawings as well. Even as I type I can hear him tapping out ‘I want to be a rabbit in Mr Gumpy’s outing.’ It’s a reference, by the way to his school assembly on Thursday (in which he is already a rabbit) not some bizarre cloak and dagger plot to expose one of his teacher’s sexual preference. His own blog. Bless. So result there. The battery is shot but Ebay should be able to fix that one hopes.S is watching Toy Story 2 in the other room. Always having been one to enjoy his own company, he is quite happily re-enacting the movie next door using his Woody and Buzz dolls to act it out. It’s really charming to see him at work. He is even mouthing along to some of the words which is very encouraging too.A is in the kitchen cooking something which smells quite divine. Some of you will know that I am dieting once again as the previous effort only revealed that I am seriously overweight and need to sort it out before my health takes a nose dive, plus as I said in a previous post, whilst I don’t care that much about how I look or what size I am, I do care greatly about being fit and healthy for my children. So I shall not be tasting the wonderful smelling food, which is a bummer I do not deny it but is all in a good cause. For those who care I have just got my BMI down to under 30 and my target is 23. I’ll keep you posted on that.B has just got home from a night spent at her sister’s place. She has been to Camden Market today and cannot tell me any more about her experience without her eyes going all flickery and her saying, ‘oh my God’ repeatedly. I’m going to take that as a positive sign.And I am in front of my computer typing this post. The blogger plug-in for Word is an absolute godsend. Soon I shall begin typing my plans for school and then I shall retire early with ‘the time traveler’s wife’ which needs to be finished for Wednesday night when The Reading Circle comes around again.